Selling Trends, Upcoming Blog Posts, and Motivation

Popularity of bare tweed Nancy Drew books

Right now the blue tweed and solid blue Nancy Drew books are selling briskly, so much so that I'm having trouble keeping an inventory.  Since my unlisted extras had dwindled to just a small quantity, I worked on sourcing more tweed books.

Pickings are slim right now, but I found some bulk lots to purchase.  These books arrived today and came from several bulk lots.  Click on the image to see it clearly.

The books aren't in the best of condition, and I paid more than I would have preferred, which was my decision.  If the books are selling briskly and I am having trouble sourcing them, then it's worthwhile to pay more than I normally would.

Both eBay and Etsy reward sellers who have regular sales by giving them better placement in the search results.  Since the tweed books are selling well, I need to keep them in stock so that the rest of my inventory has a chance at being seen in the results.

Some people think that the tweed Nancy Drew books are only worth $2 to $3 each.  All I'll say is that I paid more than $3 each for these books.  And I'm not keeping them; I will sell them.  

My profit margin will be narrow, but as I stated, it will be worthwhile since these books will help keep me in good favor with eBay and Etsy.

Recent comments now showing

A few years ago, I removed the "recent comments" widget from this blog because it wasn't working.  That was disappointing, since it was a way for blog followers to see recent comments, which can appear on any of the several thousand posts in this blog.

Last week I figured out how to get the recent comments back, so they are now visible once again in the right sidebar.  I can only have up to five recent comments displayed, but that is better than nothing.  This blog doesn't get very many comments, so checking the "recent comments" widget once every week or so is often enough.

Upcoming blog posts

I have given some thought as to how I can have regular new content in this blog even when I'm not writing posts.  I realized that I can post images that I have not already posted elsewhere.  I spent a good amount of time this weekend scanning glossy internal illustrations from the Nancy Drew, Dana Girls, and Judy Bolton series.  

I created posts with the images.  I have enough posts, if staggered once every few days, to last a few months.  Those will begin to post once I get them scheduled.  

I have written a post about digital and printed books plus another post on recent Keeper of the Lost Cities purchases.  Those will publish sometime soon.

Ongoing autoimmune flares

During the last month, I have had several autoimmune flares.  I know what triggered some of the flares, but others are a mystery to me.  One month ago, my thyroid levels were near optimal, and I feel that they are still quite good overall, although I keep fluctuating.  

I believe the most recent flare was caused by when I had to drive on very slick ice Tuesday of last week.  We had school that day when we shouldn't have.  It was a most harrowing experience.  It triggered a flare which seems to be ongoing.  I hope I'll come out of it soon.  

I mention this because the flares are causing me to lose motivation very easily and over things that normally wouldn't faze me.  

Varying Motivation

My motivation for posting on Facebook waxes and wanes.  I was enthusiastic a few months ago, and then I began to lose enthusiasm.  The problem is when certain people take the opportunity to pick my brain.

Let's say that I post an image of a Nancy Drew book.  Someone will then take the opportunity to ask me a very basic question that can be readily answered by a simple Google search.  I answer briefly, knowing what will happen next.  They then ask a follow-up question.  I answer again.  They then ask yet another question.  It is exhausting.

Other people will take the opportunity to ask me esoteric questions.  The problem here is that they choose to ask about something I don't know.  It's awkward and also tiring.

I am often asked "why" questions.  Especially common are the questions about whatever I have posted.  They ask me why the cover art was done in a certain style.  They ask why certain colors were used or why the logo was done a certain way.  

I don't know!  

These scenarios occurred several times on Facebook in the last couple of months, and my enthusiasm lessened.  During the last month, I have been wary when I have posted an image, wondering what I was going to get asked next.

I just want to encourage engagement, meaning that I want to read comments.  The comments can be short with minimal effort.  I don't expect anyone to go to a lot of trouble.  I just don't want my post to be interpreted as a signal to corner me and treat me like an encyclopedia.

Those of us who are treated like encyclopedias do feel used.  Other people have expressed this to me privately, and I feel that way at times as well.  I also feel taken for granted.  People just expect me to provide content for their enjoyment and have no idea how long the creation of that content takes.

Time-consuming content creation

I wanted to know how long the glossy internal posts were taking me.  For one book, I timed myself, not including the time to retrieve the book from and return the book to the shelf.  I found that scanning the images, editing them, uploading them, creating the post, and getting the images placed in the post took a full 15 minutes.  Multiply that by over 30 posts.  I must have spent over 8 hours working on the posts.  It was probably even longer than that, since I had to figure out how I wanted to go about certain things.

Questions that are welcome

On answering questions, I should clarify something.  If you want to open a discussion with me about color variations on picture covers, interesting buying and selling trends, library editions, whether a certain printing in Farah's Guide exists, whether Farah is correct on value and scarcity, your complaints about how collectors behave, and stuff like that, then I will be on board immediately.  It will not tire me.  I will enjoy answering questions and engaging in a discussion.

It's just exhausting having people ask me really basic questions or questions outside of my knowledge base.  I hope you understand the difference.  Ask wisely, and you shall receive.  Be careless with what you ask, and I will shut down.